Page 3 of December Wishes
“I can give you a good reason to celebrate.”
Leigh-Ann swallowed her dinner. “I can’t wait to hear this.”
“Santa-themed lingerie. I’ve got it. I’m gonna wear it, and you’re gonna see it.”
She expected Leigh-Ann to give her a mighty eyeroll. Instead, Carrie received a laugh hard enough to shoot half-chewed pieces of pizza across the room.
“You laugh,” Carrie said, “but I’m telling the damn truth.”
“Would you shut up about sexy Santas and pick us something to watch on Netflix? We have this rare occasion of watching whatever we want without my parents commentating on our tastes or hovering over us while we snuggle on the couch!”
“Yeah, and that’s why I’m talking about me wearing lingerie for you on Christmas, ya dingus!”
Leigh-Ann almost dropped her pizza onto her chest. Carrie picked up the remote and watched the Netflix logo appear on TV.
“All things considered,” Carrie said, “I think this will be a nice, low-key Christmas. Wouldn’t that be nice?”
“You sound like you’re forty instead of nineteen.”
“Hey, when we’re forty, we’ll have our own place and can wear all the lingerie we want around the house!”
Leigh-Ann whipped her head around. “You think we’re gonna be together when we’re forty? That’s, like, in twenty years.”
“You gotta have hope, right?”
The soft look Leigh-Ann gave her made Carrie fall in love all over again. While it was twenty years too soon to determine whether their high-school love affair would last until middle age, they definitely did not hold back on nuzzling noses and curling their arms around one another while watching a cheesy Christmas movie.
Chapter 3
MIKAIYA & ARIANA
The wind chill was worse than the frost on the ground.When did that frost get there, anyway?It hadn’t been there when Mik drove down to Wal-Mart. Hell, the whole day had been a balmy forty-four degrees! Was it really winter already? Frost on the ground as soon as the sun went down behind the mountains?
She sat in the warmth of her truck although the vehicle had quieted. The zipper of her rain jacket was caught in its own teeth. When she finally got it unstuck again, Mik’s elbow slammed into the rolled up window and showed no mercy to her funny bone.
Must have been one of those days.
She stared at the house before her, hand curling around the plastic Wal-Mart bag filled with groceries. The living room was dark, but a light flickered back in the kitchen.All of these houses on this street have the same layout.Ranch-styled. So was the house Mik had grown up in over on Colorado Street. Back when she was a kid, Mikaiya thought nothing of how every street had its own architectural aesthetic, based on when it was developed and what the mayor of the time envisioned for the future of Paradise Valley. The Victorians of Florida Street made as much sense as the ranch houses on Colorado Street, or the fenced-in bungalows of Idaho Street. After being gone for ten years, however, Mik now looked up and down the street wondering what the hell people had been thinking thirty, forty, however many years ago when they first broke ground on the freshly asphalted Ohio Street.
No matter how many months passed since her return, Mikaiya couldn’t get over how foreign her hometown felt. She also couldn’t believe it had almost been a whole year since she got back together with her ex-girlfriend, the young string-bean she had left waiting for her when they were only eighteen and naïve of the world beyond their insulated little dome.
Not a string-bean anymore.Mik had to face the wind chill when she saw a familiar figure in the darkened living room window. Right. She had come here for a reason. Not like her truck wasn’t normally seen on this street anymore. Gossip died about nine months ago. Right around the time some other girl in town started dating a celebrity. That was way juicier than Mik and Ari’s old drama.
Holy Christ that is freakin’ cold!She slammed the driver’s side door shut and hustled up to the welcome mat, scuffed from years’ worth of dirty EMT boots. Mik may have busted a little too much ass, however. As soon as she lifted her foot to put her hand on the doorknob, the frost got the best of her, and she slid across the concrete path between driveway and door.
The door swung open. Ari’s large figure leaned against the doorway, her bare muscles unperturbed by the December chill as she posed in nothing but jeans and a fitted Paradise Valley Emergency Response T-shirt.
“Mik,Mik,” she scolded, while Mikaiya caught her balance and slowly brought herself out of the splits. “If you want me to sweep in and pick you up, there are better ways to get my attention. Biffing it on my front lawn is simply embarrassing.”
Mikaiya brushed her dirty hands on her jacket as soon as she was back on her feet. “Yeah, thanks for the help. Love you, too.”
Ari kicked open the screen door and held out her hand. “Watch the edge of the mat there. I about cracked my skull open the other morning.”
After clasping her girlfriend’s hand and taking a mighty lunge toward the doorway, Mik mused, “How embarrassing is it for one of the town’s only EMTs to get another called on them?”
“Depends.” Ariana closed the door, bringing Mik into a warm room.Those baseboard heaters sure know how to heat up a house.Mikaiya appreciated the lazy if not slightly more expensive route in Ariana’s house. Abby was always harping at her granddaughter to get a “proper fire” started in the living room. Which meant chopping wood. And arranging the wood. And crumpling up copies of The Paradise Valley Reporter and The Oregonian.At least I get to stay a little toned in the winter…Ari was the first person to comment on how sexy Mikaiya was chopping wood. Too bad it took her a whole day to get one fire’s worth of wood. “If it’s something like a stroke or a terrible but badass accident, you get commiseration. If you smacked your thumb with a hammer or drank too much at a party, you’re never gonna hear the end of it for the better part of a decade.”
Mik placed the plastic bag on the Formica table in the kitchen. Ariana snapped it right up and pulled a skillet out of the cupboard.Did she just get off her shift? Bit late for it, huh?It was six-thirty. Ari was supposed to be off at five, but if they got a last minute call, she could sometimes be out until eight, depending. “Where’s your roommate?”
